Hey gang,
I live out in the sticks, and as such do not have city water, I'm on a well. In my area there's a problem with sulfur in the water, and I've got a hydrogen peroxide injection system that removes almost all the sulfur nasties from my water. After treatment, it tastes pretty good to me. There is no other treatment applied (softener, filter, etc.)
Sometimes, however, the peroxide tank runs dry before the water guy gets here to refill it. No huge deal to me, just means my coffee tastes slightly funky.
Until......
I started doing AG and wanted to not spend money on bottled water. Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order:
* The pH of my water is 7.9 untreated, 7.8 treated.
* My water is naturally pretty soft (Ward Labs test kit sitting here waiting to be shipped out, but for swimming pool purposes a few years ago I was told that I should ADD minerals for the pool chemicals.)
* When I boil untreated water, the sulfur smell is reduced but not eliminated. My thought is that boiling for a couple hours will pretty much completely eliminate the effects of sulfur.
Now some questions:
If I'm using untreated water for my mash, what effect if any will that have on my wort?
If there is an effect on the wort, will boiling fix it?
Is there something I can add to untreated water before mashing that will render the sulfur issue moot?
I'm sure I'll add more questions as the discussion continues.
Any water thoughts?
I live out in the sticks, and as such do not have city water, I'm on a well. In my area there's a problem with sulfur in the water, and I've got a hydrogen peroxide injection system that removes almost all the sulfur nasties from my water. After treatment, it tastes pretty good to me. There is no other treatment applied (softener, filter, etc.)
Sometimes, however, the peroxide tank runs dry before the water guy gets here to refill it. No huge deal to me, just means my coffee tastes slightly funky.
Until......
I started doing AG and wanted to not spend money on bottled water. Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order:
* The pH of my water is 7.9 untreated, 7.8 treated.
* My water is naturally pretty soft (Ward Labs test kit sitting here waiting to be shipped out, but for swimming pool purposes a few years ago I was told that I should ADD minerals for the pool chemicals.)
* When I boil untreated water, the sulfur smell is reduced but not eliminated. My thought is that boiling for a couple hours will pretty much completely eliminate the effects of sulfur.
Now some questions:
If I'm using untreated water for my mash, what effect if any will that have on my wort?
If there is an effect on the wort, will boiling fix it?
Is there something I can add to untreated water before mashing that will render the sulfur issue moot?
I'm sure I'll add more questions as the discussion continues.
Any water thoughts?